This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
A car manufacturer sometimes requires that a radiator of a cooling system for a vehicle be adapted for easily mounting a condenser for an air-conditioning system or a fan shroud to the radiator. At other times, the car manufacturer will require that the radiator be supplied with the condenser and/or the fan shroud assembled to the radiator to simplify assembly of the vehicle.
Mounting of the condenser and/or the fan shroud is typically performed by inserting bolts through mounting holes formed in one of the components and threadingly engaging an insert or a nut located on or attached to the other component. In some mounting configurations one or more of the attachment points on one component is provided with a slot and the other component is provided with a tab or arm that is designed to engage the slot to assemble the two components together.
Typically, the attachment point is located on one or both of the tanks of the radiator and when the tank body is made from plastic, the attachment point is molded as part of the tank body. While this tab/slot attachment system provides a quick and simple attachment mechanism for the two components, if the slot becomes broken or damaged, there is no easy repair solution because the slot was formed during the molding process for the tank body.